[D7EA] Keep Calm...

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

"Uh..." Vaya glanced at Sinnya, nervously.

[Sinnya]

The normal-ness of this exchange was too much for Sinnya. "I'm sorry, are we taking up too much of your precious time already?" Her hands balled into fists. "Lots of the forest people want to know how the Jedi will bring you to justice you know. If you were Aznuri, you'd probably be dead. If you convinced the elders you're actually sorry, it would be a clean death and your spirit might find the Calm after."

[Neela Takee]

"Murder and execution are not the Jedi way, we would do the same for anyone," she said honestly.

“Compassion and redemption are real for the Jedi and perhaps that is something not well understood for outsiders but our history is rife with stories like mine and I never wished to be one of those stories but here we are. I am sorry Sinnya, and I know you will not be last demanding blood.”

[Sinnya]

"I'm not demanding blood!" Sinn's nails dug into her palms. "I never killed anybody until..." She swallowed, painfully. "I never, never so much as pointed a weapon at another sentient being until the day I had to defend my people from you. It was horrible!" She had to look someplace other than at Neela; the momentum of the motion carried her and she paced away and back in a stiff little loop.

"My mother's people need the Jedi to show them that they matter too. Their dead bodies can't just be a... a... a prop in your redemption story."

[Neela Takee]

"There is no death, there is only the Force; they are not props, they haunt me, I don;t always see their faces but I will carry these actions till the day I return to the Force. If my death is the only thing that will give them peace then perhaps that is my fate but as a Jedi I have to believe there is another way and spend the rest of this life atoning for the evils I committed," she responded.

[Sinnya]

"They haunt you!" Sinnya scoffed, eyes widening in disbelief. She knew she was making a scene, and in the back of her mind she also knew she'd be embarrassed, later, to have done it in front of Vaya. In the moment, however, knowing wasn't enough to cool her anger. "What about everyone else who has to live with what you did? This isn't just about you!"

"Whatever you feel, it doesn't help the families of the people you killed. It doesn't matter one tree-rat's whisker to their friends what's in your head." Pacing done, she whirled back to face Neela. "So you want to 'atone,' huh? What in the eight tar pits of hell does that mean? Is it all about you, or are you going to do something? Talk to all the people you hurt, make things better for them instead of just telling your Jedi friends how sorry you are!"

--
D7 EA--Force flip. Let it out or redirect?: 1eF 1 Dark Side


1 conflict there, I think. Fear leads to anger!

And I'm going to stop this here till tomorrow so Vaya has a chance to react.

[Neela Takee]

“I am not here with the Jedi, I am here with people like you coming here daily to tell me how much I ruined their lives and I never turn them away. I go into the city to do what I can, and mostly I consider what I have done and why I did it. I did those things and I cannot undo them,” she said to Sinnya.

“Violence is not justice, I know that better than most but that is what most of them want. To satisfy their misguided notion of justice. I am alive, and I will have to live with the monster I was and work my entire life to aid others but it will never be enough. I have made my peace with that, mostly.”

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya had watched the exchange in uncomfortable paralysis, arms crossed over her middle, not enjoying bearing witness but unsure of what to say or whether she had a right to say it.

Now, she put her left hand over and in front of, but not on, Sinnya's shoulder, where it would be in her peripheral vision -- the suggestion of comfort or perhaps restraint, without presuming to touch.

"I don't pretend to fully understand what either of you are going through," she said, in a strained voice. "We came here to see if you could tell us anything that would help the Anzuri," and as she said it, she wondered how much it was for Sinnya's benefit, and how much for Neela's. "You've told us all you know, so thank you." She hesitated, then with her right hand pulled out a little chit with her commcode data. "I'm still going to try to figure out how to help them. I don't know what you do for the Anzuri when you go to Rygor, but maybe you'll come up with other ways you can work for them. Or maybe you won't, but you'll want to hear mine. Either way, think about using this."

She took a step forward, hand out. It was far from meeting her halfway, but uncertainty, lingering fear, and a desire to not be seen as abandoning Sinnya for Neela kept her from going farther.

[Sinnya]

"Yeah. You've got lots of thinking to do."

Sinnya shrugged and stalked off, leaving Vaya to talk more with Neela if she so chose. She was... done.

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya waited a beat longer, seeing if Neela would make any move to take it; failing that, she lay it on a rock where it would not be lost in the sand, and turned without a word to follow Sinnya. She didn't look behind her, although her antennapalps perhaps checked once or twice, out of lingering fear of pursuit or curiosity to what scene remained behind.

[Neela Takee]

Neela did not follow.